1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a movable personal computer using system in a motor vehicle that is capable of using a movable personal computer in the motor vehicle to show a virtual image of a screen on a display of the movable personal computer to a passenger.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mobile phone, a Personal Digital Assistance (PDA), a movable personal computer such as a notebook sized personal computer, and the like are usually used indoors and outside. Some of these items are brought into motor vehicles and attached to an instrument panel for their usage.
A conventional mobile phone using system in a motor vehicle of this kind is disclosed in, for example, Japanese patent laying-open publication NO. Tokkai 2002-127834. This system has a cradle that holds and supplies electric power to a hand-held sized communication terminal including a cellular phone, and a stay which is attached to an instrument panel to support the cradle. This enables hand-free use of the hand-held sized communication terminal in a motor vehicle to communicate with an exterior of the vehicle.
Another mobile phone using system in a motor vehicle of this kind is disclosed in, for example, Japanese patent laying-open publication NO. Tokkai 2002-236632. This system has a mobile phone that is supplied with electric power from the motor vehicle and communicates with an exterior of the vehicle, an on-board wireless communication terminal to communicate with outside servers, and an on-board navigation system that receives necessary information selectively from the mobile phone and the wireless communication terminal.
The above known conventional mobile phone using systems in motor vehicles, however, encounter such a problem in that functions available in the systems are specialized to be within narrow limits and their displays are too small to show various information during vehicle running.
Compared with the hand-held sized communication terminal such as a mobile phone and a PDA, a movable personal computer, such as a notebook sized personal computer, has various functions including, for example, electronic mail, voice recognition, advanced graphics, and the like, and a wide screen display to display many characters and graphical contents in an easily viewable way.
If the movable personal computer is held on an instrument panel and used in such a conventional manner as described above, the computer needs a large space outside of the instrument panel. This results in that a field of view from a driver's seat is narrowed and/or the computer interferes with driving operation, such as a steering wheel operation. Moreover, when its display is in sunlight, it exhibits poor visibility of a screen on the display.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a movable personal computer using system in a motor vehicle which overcomes the foregoing drawbacks and can use a movable personal computer with good visibility of its screen and without narrowing a field of driver's view or interfering with a driving operation.